Bill Oddie: Comedian who found nature a welcome refuge from mental illness

Image source, Getty Images By Sam Woodhouse Published 26 minutes ago Bill Oddie, who has died at the age of 85, was one of Britain's best known comedians and naturalists. A product of the Cambridge Footlights, the cradle of so much post-war British comedy, he shot to fame in the 1970s as a member of the anarchic Goodies. Bird watching was a lifelong passion and he moved into presenting nature programmes, including the BBC's Springwatch. But his life was plagued by bouts of acute depression which caused repeated admissions to psychiatric hospitals - where Oddie suffered from severe lithium poisoning as a result of his treatment. Image caption, A beardless Bill Oddie (R) with the cast of I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again in 1965 TV presenter and comedian Bill Oddie dies at 85 Published 14 minutes ago William Edgar Oddie was born near Rochdale, Lancashire on 7 July 1941. His ancestors on both sides were mill workers. However, his father Harry had made good, moved to Birmingham and worked as an accountant at the Midlands Electricity Board. The comedian later said his father's work ethic greatly influenced his approach to his own career. But Bill saw little of his mother Lillian during his childhood. She had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent much of her time in hospital. Oddie later discovered that her depression had followed the premature deaths of his two older siblings. Image source, Radio Times via Getty Images Image caption, Future Goodies Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden photographed in 1973 As a child, he became interested in bird watching; a record of one of his first observations was even preserved in a West Midlands Bird Club publication in 1956. After leaving King Edward's School, where he was an enthusiastic rugby player, he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge to read English. There he became involved with the Footlights Club, which numbered Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor among its members. Oddie wrote for and appeared in the famous 1964 review, A Clump of Plinths, which, having taken the Edinburgh Festival by storm, travelled to London's West End as well as New Zealand and the United States. Image source, Hulton Archive via Getty Images Image caption, The Goodies: (l to r) Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie in 1975 While still at Cambridge, Oddie wrote material for David Frost's satirical BBC TV show, That Was the Week That Was. He fondly recalled a poem he wrote for fellow comedian Lance Percival in the style of The Ballad of Eskimo Nell about Camberley Kate who seduced dustbin men in Kent. Having left university, he went on to join the cast of the BBC radio show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, which featured many of the Footlights performers. He was also developing as a composer, writing many of the show's songs, some of which appeared on an album, Distinctly Oddie, in 1967. Image caption, The Goodies on their 'trandem' While some of the old Footlights team went off to form Monty Python, Oddie - together with Graeme